Theatre Playwright Videos

The panelists - theatrical agent Joanne Nici, playwright Frank Pugliese ("Aven'U Boys"), director/writer Geraldine Fitzgerald ("Sharon"), choreographer Wayne Cilento ("Tommy"), and producer Frederick Zollo ("Aven'U Boys") - discuss the expanse of their careers and their backgrounds, the role of an agent, and developing plays from the page through casting and rehearsals to production.

The panelists - playwright/director Edward Albee ("Marriage Play"), director Arvin Brown ("The Twilight of the Golds"), agent Joyce Ketay, playwright Tony Kushner ("Angels In America"), playwright Timothy Mason ("The Fiery Furnace"), and playwright Jonathan Tolins ("The Twilight of the Golds") - talk about playwrights directing their own work, how directors and playwrights collaborate, gauging audience response, and the evolution of their respective productions.

The panel - director Martin Charnin ("The Flowering Peach"), "Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public" playwright Larry L. King and director/co-writer Peter Masterson, choreographer Rob Marshall ("Kiss of the Spiderwoman"), director/writer Lonny Price ("Sally Marr and Her Escorts"), Second Stage Theatre dramaturg/literary manager Erin Sanders, director Robert Jess Roth ("Beauty and the Beast"), Ernest Schier director of the National Critics' Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, and Tazewell Thompson Artistic Director of the Syracuse Stage - talk about the different ways that writers collaborate, the role of a dramaturg, how choreography and directing can be intertwined, developing a production in workshops, and reimagining an animated film as a stage musical.

Director Pamela Berlin ("Steel Magnolias", "Crossing Delancey"), playwright Cindy Lou Johnson ("Brilliant Traces"), playwright/director Garson Kanin ("Born Yesterday") and playwright Wendy Wasserstein ("The Heidi Chronicles") discuss how they first got involved in playwriting and directing from other areas of writing and theatre, their first professional shows, and play development at Playwrights Horizons and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Playwrights Conference.

The panel - director Melvin Bernhardt ("The Blues Are Running"), playwright David Henry Hwang ("Golden Child", "M. Butterfly"), composer Mary Rodgers ("Once Upon A Mattress"), playwright Nicky Silver ("Fit To Be Tied"), director David Warren ("Fit To Be Tied"), and choreographer Marlies Yearby ("Rent") - discuss how directors collaborate with playwrights, how actors may influence how a role is written, the purpose of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers union and Dramatists' Guild, and the panelists' individual education and training.

The panel of directors Walter Bobbie ("Chicago"), director/choreographer Wayne Cilento ("Dream"), Scott Elliott ("Present Laughter"), Ron Lagomarsino ("Last Night at Ballyhoo"), Gene Saks ("Barrymore"), and playwright Alfred Uhry ("Last Night at Ballyhoo") talk about how they got started, developing their current productions, a show's relevance to contemporary audiences, determining the length of a play, and how directors maintain an ongoing show.

The panel of playwrights Vernel Bagneris ("Further Mo'") and Tom Cole ("About Time"), lyricist John Driver ("Shogun"), director Tony Giordano ("About Time & Handy Dandy"), lyricist Sheldon Harnick ("The Rothschilds"), Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild David LeVine, and director Lonny Price ("The Rothschilds") discuss how they got started in their careers, writing for the stage, and the role of the Dramatists Guild.

The panel -- playwright Douglas Carter Beane ("As Bees In Honey Drown"), director Mark Brokaw ("As Bees In Honey Drown", "How I Learned To Drive"), playwright/lyricist Bill Russell ("Side Show") and playwright Paula Vogel ("How I Learned To Drive") -- talk about their backgrounds and developing their crafts, the advantages of writing for the stage compared to being a screenwriter, and why these particular playwrights prefer not to direct.

The panel of theatre professionals - playwright Michael J. Chepiga ("Getting and Spending"), choreographer Graciela Daniele ("Ragtime"), playwright/director Christopher Durang ("Sex and Longing"), director Garry Hynes ("The Beauty Queen of Leenane"), and director Joe Mantello ("Corpus Christi") - discuss how they got their start, auditioning actors, controversy surrounding a play, and taking on alternate roles of choreographer, actor, or director.

Playwright Jeff Baron ("Visiting Mr. Green"), director/playwright Moises Kaufman ("Gross Indecency"), playwright Warren Leight ("Side Man"), director Michael Mayer ("Side Man"), actor/director Lonny Price ("Visiting Mr. Green"), and director Matthew Warchus ("Art") discuss the working dynamics between a playwright and a director, the differences between screenwriting and playwriting, transitioning from acting to directing, and the development of "Side Man" and "Art".

The panel -- director Scott Ellis ("That Championship Season"), director Robert Falls ("Death of a Salesman"), playwright David Marshall Grant ("Snakebit"), director/choreographer Robert Longbottom ("The Scarlet Pimpernel"), playwright Paul Rudnick ("The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told"), and director John Tillinger ("Night Must Fall") -- discuss working with rewrites, revisions and multiple versions of a script, the playwright's input during rehearsals, and the role of a dramaturg.

The panelists -- playwright Douglas Carter Beane ("As Bees In Honey Drown"), director/choreographers Kathleen Marshall ("Kiss Me Kate") and Rob Marshall ("Damn Yankees", "She Loves Me"), director Vivian Matalon ("Morning's At Seven"), and playwright John Pielmeier ("Agnes of God") -- discuss the impact of efficient cast sizes, casting for multi-talented performers, respectfully auditionining and rejectioning performers, their individual performing backgrounds, compromising with producers, and collaborating with playwrights and directors.

Director David Esbjornson ("The Ride Down Mt. Morgan"), director David Leveaux ("The Real Thing"), playwright Becky Mode ("Fully Committed"), director Richard Nelson ("James Joyce's The Dead"), and director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett ("Swing!") discuss how they became theatre professionals, their work ethic, and their reasons for remaining and working in theatre.

Playwrights David Auburn ("Proof") and Charles Busch ("The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"), director/choreographer George Faison ("For Colored Girls"), choreographers David Marques ("The Adventures of Tom Sawyer") and Jerry Mitchell ("The Full Monty"), and director John Rando ("The Dinner Party") discuss their experiences in professional theatre, including their backgrounds, creative processes, rehearsals, and transfers to Broadway from off-Broadway and out-of-town productions.

This panel of artists - playwright/actress Pamela Gien, playwright/director/actor Lonny Price, choreographer/director Randy Skinner, director Rebecca Taylor, playwright August Wilson, and director Joel Zwick - who provide the creative heart of the theatre and breathe life into their stage productions discuss their work, backgrounds, and education; becoming a choreographer; building a book show around pre-existing songs; and how poetry relates to stage work.

Choreographers Rob Ashford and Wayne Cilento, playwright Michael Frayn, playwright/lyricist Greg Kotis, and directors Sean Mathias and Lynne Meadow discuss various aspects of their respective crafts, including the focus on storytelling, the benefits and challenges of collaboration, bad reviews, and the evolution of the director/choreographer relationship.

Playwrights Jon Robin Baitz ("Hedda Gabbler"), John Guare ("Sweet Smell of Success"), Peter Parnell ("Q.E.D."), and directors Gene Saks ("Mr. Goldwyn"), Daniel Sullivan ("Proof"), and Mary Zimmerman ("Metamorphoses") discuss their approaches to writing, directing, and adaptations; the collaboration process with directors, writers, producers, sets, and actors; reactions to a production's first preview; and the source of ideas for playwrights.

Director and lyricist Martin Charnin ("Annie"); director and choreographer Graciela Daniele ("Annie Get Your Gun"); lyricist and book writers Rupert Holmes ("Say Goodnight, Gracie") and Michael Kunze ("Dance of the Vampires"); and directors Marion McClinton ("King Hedley II") and Lawrence Sacharow (Director of Fordham University Theatre Program) talk about the evolution of both play and musical writing in the United States today and the changes in directorial style and direction over the years.

Director Bob Balaban ("Y2K"), playwrights Richard Greenberg ("Take Me Out") and Suheir Hammad ("Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam"), choreographer Luis Perez ("Man of La Mancha") and director David Petrarca ("A Year With Frog and Toad") discuss the condition of American theatre both in New York and around the country, and some of the shifts that are occurring both in audience expectations and the direction of new works.

Choreographer Jonathan Butterell ("The Light In The Piazza", "Nine"), director Moises Kaufman ("The Laramie Project", "Gross Indecency"), playwright Arthur Kopit ("Nine", "Oh Dad, Poor Dad..."), choreographer Joey McKneely("The Boy From Oz", "Wild Party"), playwright Theresa Rebeck ("Ominum Gatherum", "Bad Dates") and director Susan H. Schulman ("Little Women", "Secret Garden") explore how playwrights, directors and choreographers place themselves in the body of the character so that the character's voices and actions can emerge, what happens in the theatre to make the experience different from film and television, what it means to be an artist - and how an artist's success is measured.